Rodel A.
Louron
JD1-2
Practice/Exercise:
Title: Legal Research as a Fundamental Skill: A lifeboat for Students and Law
Schools. *
Author: Sarah Valentine (The City of University of New York School of Law)
Summary:
The Author of the article is convinced through the entire paper that legal
research should be taught as both a fundamental legal skill and a fundamental
lawyering skill in the first year of law school. It was noted also that when legal
research is taught as both a legal and a lawyering skill, it is a course that actively
supports the process of legal analysis that law schools seek to imbue in their first-
year students, and it provides skills necessary for the practice of law.
The article also emphasized the essence of having the tools of critical research
wherein it points that to navigate the oceans of information (legal and otherwise)
currently swamping the legal system, law students must become information
literate: able to identify reliable, authentic information from online clutter or
misinformation, critically evaluate the information, and then use it effectively.
Accordingly, if law school is to provide a place where the legal profession not
only communicates knowledge from expert to beginner, but also communicates
ethics and values, then legal research education must be taught by experts and
better integrated into the entire curriculum. Legal research, no less than legal
writing, is directly linked to legal thought, and should be taught as the complex set
of skills it entails.
She concluded then that when recognized and rebuilt as a fundamental skill,
legal research can be a lifeboat for law students and law schools alike.
*Valentine, Sarah (2010) "Legal Research as a Fundamental Skill: A Lifeboat for Students and Law Schools,"
University of Baltimore Law Review: Vol. 39: Iss. 2, Article 3. Available at:
http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/ublr/vol39/iss2/3
Title: Philippine Legal Research*
Author: Milagros Santos-Ong
Summary:
The Author described the Philippine legal system which according to her may
be considered as a unique legal system because it is a blend of civil law (Roman),
common law (Anglo-American), Muslim (Islamic) law and indigenous law.
She also pointed out that Legal research for statute law in the Philippines
benefited remarkably from the use of the latest technology due to two major
problems: a) no complete and updated published or printed search tools or law
finders for statute law and b) no complete compilation of statute law from 1901-
present were available. Problems of the publication of compilations of statute law or
the existence of the full-text of Presidential Decrees was brought about to the
Supreme Court in the Tanada v. Tuvera,G.R. No. 63915, April 24, 1985 (220 Phil
422), December 29, 1986 (146 SCRA 446) case was resolved by the use of the latest
technology. The Tanada v. Tuvera,case that was first decided before the bloodless
revolution popularly known as People Power or the EDSA Revolution and modified in
the December 29, 1986 or after the People Power or the EDSA Revolution resolved
the publication requirement for the effectivity of laws as provided for in Section 2 of
the Civil Code of the Philippines. This was resolved by Executive Order No. 200, s.
1987 that provides that laws become effective fifteen (15) days after publication in
the Official Gazette or in two newspapers of general circulation.
Overall ,the article was merely enumerating some facts in the way of
Philippine legal system and research.
*Milagros, Santos-Ong. (2015) Philippine Legal Research Hauser Global Law School Program, New York
University School of Law page
Title: The Commercial Ends that Motivate the Legal Profession: An Alternative Model
to Understanding the Rules that Govern the Practice of Law
Author: Ong, Allan Verman Y.
The practice of law is governed by a myriad of precepts and regulations: the Code of
Professional Responsibility, Rule 139-B of the Revised Rules of Court on Disbarment
and Discipline of Attorneys, judicial decisions, statues, the Constitution, treaties,
and publications. These regulations chart a moral science which embodies the
duties that a client owes to the court, to his client, to his colleagues in the
profession, and to the public.
This Note suggests an alternative paradigm with which to view the rules that govern
the practice of law. By engaging in a historical investigation of the practice of law
and by a comparison of the rules that govern the practice of law with various pieces
of legislation in Commercial Law, Political Law, and Civil Law, one can observe that
the philosophical underpinnings of the rules that govern the practice of law is not so
much with the end of regulating the practice of law as a profession, but
acknowledges that the practice of law as something more than merely a profession.
*Ong, Allan Verman Y. (2003) The Commercial Ends that Motivate the Legal Profession: An Alternative Model to
Understanding the Rules that Govern the Practice of Law, Ateneo Law Journal, 48(03)
